The mainline Klonoa game has always been appreciated by enthusiastic fans and collectors as a cult classic platformer, a hidden gem in their console library. This is disappointing as the Klonoa series contains all the elements that make it a full-fledged franchise. A simple and engaging mechanic, a vibrant visual style, an instantly recognizable protagonist, and a story of sitting with you long after the final credit roll. Not only was Klonoa successful, but one might think that it soared during the Halcyon era and the early days of the mascot platformer in the late 90’s. Unfortunately, despite many handheld spin-off titles and a short revival on the Wii, Klonoa has never found a foothold as an economically viable franchise.
The Klonoa Fantasie Reverie series is the latest attempt by BANDAI NAMCO to offer Dream Travelers a new life lease. This package includes a remaster of the PlayStation original Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (based on a Wii remake) and the PlayStation 2 sequel Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil. Two incredible games worth the admission fee, even if the shell you enter is a little undercooked.
The door to Phantom Mile gameplay is the joy of a proven platform. As one of the pioneers of the 2.5D platformer genre, move left or right on a 2D plane in a 3D environment, jump to clear gaps, overcome obstacles and use flutter for long distances. And support relocation. The main wrinkle in the gameplay is Klonoa’s handy wind bullet. It acts as a short range grab for many applications. Its main purpose is to catch the bad guys and inflate them like balloons above their heads. Then Klonoa can throw them straight as an attack or boost himself as one of the best feeling double jumps in any video game. A very simple idea, but a good level design extends this one mechanism for solving the platform and puzzles to keep the whole fresh. Early vision (the level of Klonoa nomenclature) tends to be a simple matter from point A to point B as it guides new players to the basic mechanics. It is a later vision to fully realize the potential of both the Klonoa wind bullet and the 2.5D world. These stages take advantage of the 3D environment by incorporating detours, split routes, and creative backtracking that cannot be represented in a completely flat world. Often, the path branches into multiple routes, twists the knots around the corners, follows a cork bottle opener course, and in combination with the visuals, roots the environment in which Klonoa moves in the sense of a real place. Let me do it. The door to the illusion is classic and will last incredibly well even after 20 years.
Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil is one of those rare and perfect sequels. It inherits the solid platform and visual prosperity that made Door to Phantomile great, and is built on those concepts in a more spectacular world and more cinematic presentations. The vision is very fast-paced, hitting the sweet spots of length, visual diversity, platforms and puzzles. The first game also had light puzzle elements scattered around the levels, but they were more focused in the sequel and were the highlights at most levels. My personal favorite vision was the mind-boggling Maze of Memories, which puts the puzzle platform challenges in front and in the center and is just one of many examples of the creative locales visited in Lunatea. Another highlight is the various hoverboard levels scattered throughout the adventure. The faster reaction-based hoverboard section is a welcome addition, as the standard Klonoa level always runs at a slower pace.
We won’t delve into the story of these games, partly because the plots are so simple. A summary of both Klonoa and Lunatea’s Veil Cliff Note is fantastic as Klonoa and his friends need to find important people to save the world from malicious forces and gather MacGuffins. It can be described as an adventure traveling the world in the environment. Another reason I won’t reveal any more is that both of these stories carry something just below the surface of the whimsical fairy tale. All I say is that there are enough inspirational moments I’m still thinking about, which puts an unexpected emotional burden on both games. It’s hard to choose which story was my favorite, but the sequel presentation has a clear step up. Klonoa 2 is very cinematic, spending a lot of time and effort on world building, dialogue, and characters, making it the more substantive of the two stories.
But for individual games it’s enough. How is the Klonoa series carried as a package? Developer MonkeyCraft is an ambitious product, but has provided a solid product. It’s a light touch remaster, a refresh rather than an overhaul. The visual upgrades are true to the spirit of the series, leaning towards a bright, cheerful and saturated style. It’s a nice looking port, but its performance is ultimately inferior to the PS2 games with Wii and HD makeovers. For most of my playthroughs, the frame rate was well above 30 fps, but there’s still a weird bitterness from the game that I can’t consistently hit 60 fps. And there was no way to lock the frame rate to 30 fps, so that slight break was something I had to get used to. There are even steeper drops between the cutscenes and some bosses, but these were numbers that didn’t bother me and made a considerable difference. These ports are still fully playable and work well in both docking and handheld modes, but this is primarily switchable and sacrifices image and performance for portability. I’m from someone I don’t mind.
Another disappointment is music. Both soundtracks haven’t changed. Given that it was great in the first place, this isn’t a big loss, but I hope BNE NAMCO has put in the resources to revamp the music in line with the visual upgrades. Other than that, there are some peripheral changes such as extended tutorials, fine-tuned translations, difficulty options, and more. Both Easy and Normal difficulty levels are available first, and Hard difficulty levels are unlocked after the playthrough is complete. The main difference between the two of these difficulties is how healthy you are in each life and how far your wind bullets reach. Easy is the only difficulty that features an extended range of wind bullets that feels much better than the short reach of normal and hard. However, Easy Mode also has a huge health gauge and infinite lifespan, so you have the choice of hitting difficulty or playing with worse control. Thankfully, you can swap difficulty levels at any time, so it’s a good idea to find the one that works best for you early on and stick to that difficulty level for the rest of the playthrough.
It’s clear that the Klonoa series was a budget job, but it stays in that lane and offers two great games in one okay package. Still, this decent port is probably one of the best gaming gifts of the year. Thanks to that, I was able to reunite with the simple joy of Door to Phantomir, and to introduce the wonder that was the veil of Lunatea for the first time. After spending about eight hours on both titles, I remembered how special these games were. Throughout the spectacular Pantheon of the platform icon, there is no such thing as Klonoa yet. It’s a thoughtful and complex level, but with a melancholy undercurrent, built around a simple and satisfying mechanic surrounded by a dreamlike whimsical world. That’s why I want the Klonoa series to give me a little more and run a little better. When a loved one is lost for a long time, it’s hard not to stick to every bit that can be afraid that it will be torn from you again. Ultimately, I am grateful for the opportunity to wipe the dust from these hidden gems decades ago. Maybe even for a moment, it’s not so hidden anymore.
